


tomorrow will come, like it or not

by labocat



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: F/F, Hiding Medical Issues, conversations andy would rather not have
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:13:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25759396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/labocat/pseuds/labocat
Summary: Andy has many things she'd rather discuss with Quynh than why the wound in her side hasn't healed yet. Quynh's years underwater, perhaps.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko
Comments: 8
Kudos: 112
Collections: Battleship 2020, Battleship 2020 - Yellow Team





	tomorrow will come, like it or not

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HogwartsToAlexandria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HogwartsToAlexandria/gifts).



Andy forgets to guard her left side when her eyes meet Quynh’s. Quynh used to tease her about it, that it was her weaker side.

“Can’t have a weaker side if both sides are centuries better than anyone I’m fighting.”

With a quick movement inward, Quynh would get inside her guard, a small dagger drawing blood. “Everyone’s got a weakness,” she’d say, lips skimming Andy’s cheek, blood on her fingers and blade as she’d spin away before Andy could retaliate.

Now, though, she just feels the dull impact of impact, knowing that the sharp, familiar sensation of the shrapnel piercing skin will come later. It will linger, which is new, but for now, the feeling is an old friend she can fight through, making sure her team is out and trying to catch one last glimpse of Quynh before the building collapses.

Quynh does the work for her, cornering her against a half-destroyed wall, knife at her throat, coming out of seemingly nowhere. It feels as familiar as the pain on Andy’s side.

Quynh’s eyebrows go up, surprised that Andy isn’t fighting, but Andy doesn’t _want_ to fight, not with Quynh the closest she’s been in centuries, murderous look in her eyes or not. The sight of it gets her blood going — she’s never been strong when it comes to Quynh — but it would be hard to learn forward to kiss Quynh with a knife at her throat.

At least, not now that the knife at her throat could actually likely kill her. Quynh wouldn’t know to pull the knife back; she still looks surprised that Andy is just letting her pin her against the wall, but Quynh is the one opponent Andy can’t take right now.

She’s saved by Nile yelling for her, and it seems like it wasn’t Quynh’s intention to face her today either. The knife at her throat is gone and then it’s just the two of them once more, staring each other down. It takes everything in Andy to not move forward, to not sweep Quynh into her arms, apologize for not finding her, that her best hadn’t been good enough. A beat that feels like a century, and then Quynh is gone and Nile is rounding the corner of the ruined warehouse.

She’s got bandages in her hand, and while the pain still hasn’t set in yet, Andy knows to take this seriously. Even if her healing is still accelerated from a normal human’s, it’s slow enough that she doesn’t want to test it, to find out if she is still immortal.

She still turns to see if Quynh has fully disappeared.

The next time they meet, it’s in a bar. Almost normal, by anyone’s standards, just like any other hookup, except for the fact that Quynh had been taken from her long before clubbing or dating apps. There’d been a lot they’d gotten away with, being immortal and feeling invincible, flaunting and fighting those who told them ‘no’ or made assumptions. There’s a strange sort of freedom, sidling up to Quynh, signaling the bartender for another round and knowing that everyone else in the bar thinks she’s just pulling. They don’t know the years between them and that’s fine. Tonight, perhaps they can be someone else, instead of Andromache and Quynh, the immortals.

“This is the prison, isn’t it. Its grounds.” Well, there goes that idea.

Andy throws back the drink the bartender has just brought, immediately signaling for another one. Previously, it wouldn’t be a problem, her system clearing alcohol fast enough she never got more than warm, but now it burns through her. With the flashing lights of the bar, her vision blurs the edges of Quynh, just a little. Enough that she can almost pretend it’s just another dream.

“Andy.” There it is, the tone that always meant “that’s a dumb idea but I trust you’re smart enough to realize it” or “don’t try to lie to me.” She’d thought she’d gotten over it, missing that tone, but it turns out it’s just one more wound that was slow to heal. It snaps her back faster than a pinch to her arm, though, and she nods.

“Yeah. I like drinking here when I get maudlin. Like pissing on their graves.” She nods at the rest of the bar as she slides the other glass over to Quynh. “Better if we both do it.”

They clink glasses, neither of their gazes breaking over the rims as they sip. Andy can see the laughter in Quynh’s that she knows wants to break out, but there’s still so much guilt buried in her heart at how long it’d taken — that she still doesn’t know _how_ Quynh had gotten out of her prison, that others had had to dream of and live with her failure. 

There are so many questions she wants to ask Quynh, but a bar isn’t the place for them, and she knows they should move somewhere else, have an actual conversation, but it’s hard to form words with Quynh’s mouth over hers, Quynh’s hands once again pressing her against a wall. She still looks slightly surprised at how easily Andy had gone, following her, but there’s still a thick pad of bandages under the loose tank Andy is wearing, and explaining that feels even harder than pulling away from Quynh right now.

The decision is made for her, though, as Quynh’s hand moves from her shoulders, skimming along the side of her breast in a move that makes her gasp into Quynh’s mouth. Quynh’s hand settles firmly on her side, right over the bandages. Andy knows she doesn’t hide the wince, far too caught up in having Quynh’s hands on her again, _Quynh herself_ close.

Quynh’s eyes narrow on her. The look in her eyes says she remembers just how Andy had been hit back at the warehouse. She’d always had a good memory for details.

“You didn’t heal.” She’s remembering Lykon, Andy knows it from the way her hands shift from gripping Andy’s side to cupping it, as if she is actively bleeding. As if her hands can stop it.

“It’s fine.” Andy would almost rather discuss those years underwater than this. There are other questions to be asked, and this had never been on the list.

“Since _when_ ,” Quynh hisses, low but clear even under the pounding music, and Andy could never truly lie to her.

“Months.” She waves her hand. “It’s _fine_ , plenty of time to learn my way around it. There’s a lot these days that helps with healing. Keeps everything clean, heals it up nicely. Barely even a scar.” She’s said the wrong thing, she knows, at the way Quynh’s eyes go wide, for just a second. She wants to rip the bandage off and see it. Andy can’t let her.

She puts a hand over Quynh’s, over her side. “I’m careful.” She deserves the look Quynh gives her at that, and shrugs. “As careful as I can be. I’ve made it this long; even healing almost normally, I’m still better than any of the rest of them.”

That gets her a long stare, the lights reflecting off of Quynh’s eyes as she searches Andy’s for an answer Andy doesn’t have. Finally, Quynh pulls her close once more, sealing their mouths together roughly before pulling back entirely. Andy shivers slightly in the wake of her heat. 

“It took me 400 years to come back to you; you owe me at least that.” Then she’s gone into the night, leaving Andy with nothing more than a promise in her heart and the taste of Quynh and cheap whisky on her lips.

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on [Twitter](twitter.com/labocat)!


End file.
